UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE PRESS RELEASE
Embargo: Please note that this is intended as a Thursday for Friday item and is
therefore embargoed until 12.30 p.m. GMT on Friday, 21 March
Teachers under pressure to make the grade
Schoolteachers are still fighting an uphill battle with large quantities of paperwork
and competing demands on their time, despite Government efforts to reduce pressure
on their working lives, a new report will reveal on Friday (21 March).
According to the Cambridge University-led study, teachers’ working weeks have, if
anything, increased in the wake of a series of “remodelling” initiatives by schools
ministers designed to liberate them from onerous workloads.
The report, which will be presented to the National Union of Teachers annual
conference in Manchester, says that “Demands on teachers have increased beyond
their capacity to meet them”.
Headteachers and senior staff are, in particular bearing the brunt of increased
managerial duties and policy initiatives. Researchers also found that growing numbers
of Teaching Assistants, introduced to take some of the administrative weight off
teachers’ shoulders, are often running classes while teachers themselves deal with
tasks such as paperwork and photocopying.
“The workforce reforms of the last few years have proved a palliative for a system on
the verge of implosion, but they have not improved teachers’ work-life balance,”
Professors John MacBeath and Maurice Galton, from the University of Cambridge’s
Faculty of Education, who led the research, said.
“That applies to headteachers and senior staff in particular, but we also found that
teaching assistants were increasingly put upon, while in many cases the lives of
normal school staff had not improved. For heads, 12-hour days are not uncommon,
weekends usually involve school-related work and extended holidays are a distant
memory.”
The report, entitled Pressure and Professionalism, was commissioned by the NUT
and follows a number of previous surveys, in 2002, 2004 and 2006 which similarly
sought to present an accurate portrait of teachers’ working lives.
Since then, there have been a number of Government “remodelling” initiatives
designed to liberate teachers from heavy workloads. To analyse how effective these
had been, the researchers returned to the schools they had visited in their previous
surveys and interviewed teachers, parents and pupils.
Contrary to official figures, they found that working hours have remained the same
over the past five years, and in some cases even increased. A primary school teacher’s
typical working week, for example, was now found to be 56 hours compared with 54
hours in 2002.
In secondary schools the pattern was much the same. Asked about the impact of the
reforms, one English teacher replied: “I work every minute of the day. I work through
break, all through lunch… I take work home most nights, these days I work at
weekends as well. I do my preparation in the holidays”.
In some cases, the researchers found that teachers were under so much pressure they
were unable to arrange a return visit because the school’s head was “completely
bogged down”. “Letters and Emails often received no response and trial by telephone
was a deeply frustrating experience,” the report observes. “Schools, along with
businesses, had entered the age of the disembodied call centre.”
Compared with 2002, discipline problems were found to have become worse in
primary schools, adding to the teachers’ workload. Some complained about a minority
of “highly permissive parents” who made it harder to enforce discipline and rules in
the classroom. One teacher even recounted an incident in which a six-year-old had
told them how to kill pimps and prostitutes after mastering the violent computer
game, Grand Theft Auto.
Teaching Assistants, while welcomed by regular teachers because of the extra help
they provide, were in many cases found to be focusing so much on children with
special needs that they were barely lifting the pressure on the classroom teacher at all.
In other situations, teachers were found to be relying on them to lead the class while
they carried out administrative duties. Teaching assitants are commended for their
goodwill and ‘going the extra mile’ in face of inadequate pay and training for the
demanding range of tasks they undertake. .
Gradually, researchers say, many teachers are becoming more like “learning
managers”, leading to an artificial divide between pastoral care and academic
achievement. This view appears to be compounded by the experiences of students –
one secondary pupil, for instance, when asked “What’s the best thing you’ve done in
this school?” was unable to think of an answer.
Despite the long working hours and high-pressure environment, however, the
researchers did also find cases of happy teachers enjoying successful working lives. In
many instances, the report says, this was because of excellent management from
headteachers, who allowed their staff to work creatively.
“Good teachers have always known how to be educationally subversive,” the report
adds. “They are encouraged, supported and empowered by a senior leadership team
which understands that schools learn and change from the bottom up.”
-ENDSFor more information contact: Tom Kirk, Communications Office, University of
Cambridge, Tel: +44 (0)1223 332300, mobile +44 (0)7917 535815, Email:
tdk25@admin.cam.ac.uk
Professors John MacBeath and Maurive Galton are available for interviews.
Copies of the full report can be provided on request.